This work is eminently collective: no less than 21 contributors, most of them from the University of Rennes (Accounting – Finance of the IGR-IAE Rennes) to analyse the extra-financial impact of organisations.Despite institutionalised extra-financial evaluation practices and systematic reporting by large companies, ambiguity and tension seem to determine the evaluation of the extra-financial impact of organisations. Ambiguity of the place given to evaluations by beneficiary organisations when the activities of the Vigéo agency (social and environmental rating agency created in 2002 with Nicole Notat, former secretary general of the CFDT) were bought by Moody’s in 2019. ​​Therefore, it becomes difficult not to underline the link of subordination that exists between the financial and the extra-financial. ​​ ​​ We already know that finance is a long-term process. ​​The authors highlight the recurring tensions between financial and extra-financial performance, two objectives that are at the heart of sustainable finance. ​​Three avenues of reflection are envisaged: (i) promotion of a new balance between these two objectives, leaving more room for the expression of stakeholders, (ii) implementation of a more relevant regulation, replacing the relative ESG measures with absolute measures of extra-financial performance, (iii) determination of the real level of stakeholder involvement to support more sustainable business models.  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​If the authors’ stated ambition is to provide a structuring support for the development of partnerships dedicated to the study of contemporary issues of overall performance and responsibility of organizations, it can be said that the book has arrived at the right time. ​​Indeed, Patrick d’Humières, author of “Entreprise et géopolitique” (Business and Geopolitics) does not fail to point out that the request for ESG information first came from investors and that we can only be surprised that this lever is not used against the Chinese manufacturing submersion to “stop illegitimate dumping in the name of social, environmental and loyalty differentials, contrary to the values that constitute the foundation of our model of society”. ​​ Aurélien Ragaigne ​​works on the subject of extra-financial indicators and managerial situationssubject to tensions and paradoxes. ​​Jean-Laurent Viviani’s research focuses oncorporate finance, risk management and sustainable finance. ​​HélèneRAINELLI-WEISS is Director of the Master’s in Finance, Treasury course, and is interestedin how organisational theories can help to understand thefunctioning of the financial industry.  ​​ Alain Brunet

Power, or superpower, has been asserting itself since the dawn of time. It is rooted in all civilizations. From the Dogons of Mali to the Tukanos of the Amazon, and the Australian Aborigines, people believe in creators, gods, mythical figures of superpower whose extraordinary powers far exceed those of human beings. This advent of superpower is affirmed with monotheism and the idea that there exists one single creator. God reigns without rival, and His power is absolute over the entire universe. With the emergence of states, around the third millennium BCE, and of god-kings, superpower entered the human world. Modernity took shape in Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. Although democratic in essence, it nevertheless remained archaic in many ways, and the centralized, militarized, and organized state constituted the core element of modern superpower. For the author, this state-centered superpower is no longer ours. The hypertrophy of law, supranational institutions, external constraints, financial markets, and hyper-individualism have reduced the room for manoeuver of nation-states. Politics is receding in favor of polycentric systems organized around technology and  economy. Technoscience and hyper-capitalism have become the driving forces of a technical superpower that seems to go hand in hand with political impotence. Liberal democracies are weakened by excessive media coverage and fake news; new technologies are taking over and posing unprecedented challenges to political leaders. Social media is shaping a citizen into consumers of immediate, fragmented information.The hypermodern uniformity of a Western civilization sharing the same values was a myth. Europe, deemed too “woke,” too regulated, too bureaucratic, too liberal in terms of values, is no longer considered a partner by D. Trump. We are living in a time of the West against the West, of the “de-Europeanization” of the world; economically, it is the opposition between market capitalism and state capitalism. Democracies are retreating while authoritarian regimes are on the rise.Today’s superpower, with its ts capabilities, speed, and intensity, has nothing in common with anything  humanity has ever known before. It is an anthropotechnical metamorphosis whose limits we do not know. And this absence of limits generates fear and insecurity. This is the paradox of boundless superpower: the feeling of insecurity extends to all spheres of daily life — the air we breathe, GMOs, 5G, the erosion of biodiversity, climate change, gluten, pesticides. Everything is perceived as threatening. This heightened sensitivity to risk intensifies a demand for protection that becomes obsessive. And yet, never before has humanity possessed so many means to transform the world; never before have measurable indicators of living standards, life expectancy, access to healthcare, and human rights been so high.We undeniably live better today than we did yesterday. However, what about our quality of life? Is happiness faltering, or have we lost the ability to appreciate moments of intense joy? Much is still to be expected from advances in technoscience; but it would be an illusiory to believe that these could domesticate happiness into scientific laws or algorithms. Perhaps therein lies the limit of the superpowered society: this anthropological, faceless and unmasterable limit — the inappropriable happiness of each individual. Gilles Lipovetsky is a philosopher and essayist. Ph Alezard

So-called “happy” globalisation is now a thing of the past. ​​With it, the promise of continuous growth based on the indefinite intensification of international trade has faded. ​​The turn of the 2020s marks a profound rupture in the global economic and geopolitical order, under the combined effect of major shocks — the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the rise of economic sanctions, the resurgence of inflation, the resurgence of protectionism — as well as the rise of the fourth industrial revolution driven by digital technology and artificial intelligence. In this context, the transformations brought about by technological giants with unprecedented capitalisation are reshaping the economic, social and political balance on a global scale. ​​This volume of the Revue d’économie financière analyses these recompositions through the contributions of thirteen experts, articulated around three structuring axes. The first part examines the questioning of the international order. ​​Geopolitical tensions have led to an increasing fragmentation of world trade, which is now structured around strategic blocs. ​​Security is emerging as an organising principle of international relations, reconfiguring economic interdependencies. ​​The asymmetries resulting from globalisation, formerly vectors of integration, are becoming instruments of power and coercion. ​​In this context, Europe is faced with an imperative to strengthen its strategic autonomy, both militarily and energetically, as well as financially and digitally. The second part analyses the changes in contemporary capitalism in an environment marked by systemic crises since 2008. ​​The hypothesis of convergence towards a single model has given way to a plurality of trajectories. ​​American market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism now structure the global economy, while Europe is developing its own path, based on normative framework and the search for a balance between innovation and protection. ​​These differences are particularly evident in the development of artificial intelligence, which has become a major strategic issue. The third part deals with monetary and financial fragmentation. ​​It recalls, from a historical perspective, the constant intertwining of finance and geopolitics, characteristic of the great economic powers. ​​The question of monetary sovereignty is addressed in close connection with that of the sovereignty of payments. ​​While Europe has a sovereign currency, it remains dependent on largely extraterritorial payment infrastructures. ​​This vulnerability is a major strategic issue in a context where financial instruments can become levers of economic pressure. Through these analyses, this volume aims to contribute to the debate on the new dynamics of power and the conditions for European strategic autonomy in a permanently fragmented world. Philippe Alezard

This book tells the extraordinary story of life and natural intelligence, from the emergence of protocells four billion years ago to the appearance, 500 million years ago, of organisms endowed with mind, feelings and consciousness, thanks to a radical novelty: the nervous system. For the author, current advances in neurobiology can provide satisfactory answers to the question of the “manufacture” of consciousness. ​​According to him, this is “the biological process that allows everyone to experience their individual life, in other words, to know that we are alive and that we exist“. ​​The complex beings that we are come into the world equipped with biological mechanisms to protect the life we have against major threats that could jeopardise it. ​​These mechanisms are “homeostatic” feelings, which participate in the regulation of life by maintaining key organs or functions in an ideal range: “homeostasis”. This is the fundamental break proposed by Damasio. ​​Consciousness is not born in the brain, but in the feelings necessary to sustain life. ​​It emerges from a permanent dialogue, via the spinal cord and the vagus nerve, between the inside of the body and certain areas of the brain, much more differentiated than those dedicated to cognition. ​​This dialogue is that of interoception. ​​The continuation of life depends on the reliability of the information it provides and the responses that the subject provides. ​​We feel before we think. ​​Hunger, thirst, pain or fatigue are conscious biological responses to the vulnerability of life. ​​Interoceptive or homeostatic feelings are spontaneously conscious, with a single purpose: to inform the entire mental process with warning signals that cannot be ignored. ​​We are thus viscerally aware, what the author calls the “sensitive mind”. Nature has given this sensitive spirit two valuable allies: exteroception, which brings together all the sensory receptors – sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell – allowing us to connect to our environment, and proprioception, which makes all voluntary movements such as walking, eating, running or talking possible. ​​Consciousness is therefore not a software installed in the brain, but the juxtaposition of all these living processes. The brain alone does not hold the key to mental processes: it depends on the physiology of the body and the non-neural components of the brain. ​​Natural intelligence is a property of the living, which sets it apart from artificial intelligence, which does not have to worry about its life since it does not have one. ​​AI has no homeostatic feelings. ​​Machines can process huge amounts of information, speed up many tasks and reduce costs, but they cannot rely on the feelings that allow us to sort things out. ​​They remain dependent on their human owners – and humans can be bad. It is this conscious vulnerability, a distinctive feature of human intelligence, that should be introduced into AI. ​​It would induce a form of artificial prudence that could inhibit risky behaviour just as it has led to the development of moral systems and justice in humans.  ​​ Antonio Damasio, Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology, Psychology and Philosophy at the University of California. ​​He heads the Brain and Creativity Institute. ​​Member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ph Alezard

The latest book by Eric Carrey and Hubert Landier raises an issue that is currently much debated in all cultures around the world, centered on the two strongly synergistic concepts of “meaning and care” applied to the planet, humanity, society, business and the individual. ​​ The authors emphasize that the numerous measures implemented over the past half-century at the international, national and local levels, in terms of sustainable development and social, environmental and governance responsibility, despite their progress, are insufficient to meet the expectations of producers, consumers and citizens. ​​Their quest for meaning in their actions and their aspirations for solidarity and well-being are thwarted by  governments’ desire to restore major economic and financial balances, by the attempts of workers’ attempt to adapt to new technologies, by f consumers ’fears of facing shortages, but also by the determination of more and more social actors to achieve the energy, ecological and digital transitions. The authors invite us to go beyond the canonical notions of homo economicus by recalling the genealogy of the concepts that have marked out the vast field of “meaning and care”: the economies of gift-giving, the common good, well-being, happiness; circular and frugal economies; cooperative, associative and partnership-based governance, CARE and CURE practices, etc. They revisit the notions of  sustainability, resilience, responsibility, solidarity, etc. Using illuminating ideal-type cases, the authors analyze the application of these concepts to the planet (water, air, earth) and to different objects (clothes, bottles, etc.).They strive to perceive the weak signals that herald the turning points in our civilization, its vital principles, its essential practices, its mobilizing values and its new languages. Hubert Landier (Doctor of Economics) is Professor Emeritus of Universities. ​​Eric Carrey (St Cyr, Exeter and ESSEC) is a professor of social and solidarity economics. Jean Jacques Pluchart

The author, a great reporter at Le Figaro, engages in a difficult and original exercise: to draw economic lessons from world fiction. ​​The exercise is particularly successful because the book enriches its readers with useful economic knowledge and valuable cultural contributions. ​​The author declines her literary career by rereading 18 works covering 6 periods. The first relates the lessons lavished by the authors of Genesis (the curse of work), Homer (the role of money), Hesiod (misery), Thucydides (the financing of war) and Petrone (manipulation and fraud). ​​The second covers medieval times, with Tristan and Isolde, the tale of the Grail, the Roman de Renart and the ballads of Christine de Pisan, which illustrate the difficult material and social conditions of peasants, women and the bourgeoisie of cities and fairs. ​​The third sequence is marked by the shift in the market economy, with analyses of the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Lafayette, La Fontaine, Rousseau and Casanova, marked by tensions between financial interests and friendship, rules of the past and the future, work and income, nature and culture, investment and speculation. ​​The fourth age is that of the transition from economics to the state of science with the economic lessons of Goethe, Austin, Stendhal, Balzac, Dostoievki, Zola, Mann and Wharton, who describe the effects of capitalism and conventions on the economic situations of women, the bourgeois, workers and consumers. ​​The next phase is devoted to London (work ethic), Kafka (the excesses of bureaucracy), Yourcenar (the end of religions), Akhmatova (totalitarianism), Ayn Rand (individualism), Perec (consumerism), Druon (social declassification), Pamuk (standardisation) and Wolf (ambition). ​​The last sequence focuses on 21st century literature, with books by Houellebecque (the attraction of platforms), Adiichie (migration), Coe (the torments of the middle class), Egan (the development of digital technology) and Koenig (digital and ecological transitions). Anne de Guigné’s book thus makes it possible to rediscover or discover the thoughts and biographies of authors who have lived through their century and economic laws that have spanned the centuries. ​​The author’s elegant and lively style gives the book a character that is both educational and cultural. Anne de Guigné is a senior reporter at Le Figaro, in charge of economic issues, and the author of several books. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

This is an essay on the “hidden” dangers of digital currency. As central banks around the world prepare to roll out their digital currencies (CBDCs), a historic shift is brewing in the shadows, according to the author.  This incisive and accessible investigative book delves into the heart of this silent revolution of technologies presented as innovative, secure, and practical, when “CBDCs actually conceal a logic of permanent surveillance, the extinction of cash, and algorithmic control of populations.” The author deciphers what he claims to be the real objectives of this technology, its intertwining with artificial intelligence, social credit, green passports, and digital identities. He highlights his vision of a global agenda, “shared by both Western institutions and emerging powers (BRICS+, etc.), aimed at establishing a cashless society, driven by algorithms and subject to behavioral compliance criteria.” However, the book does not mention the advantages of central bank digital currencies, nor the risks inherent in their implementation, nor the measures envisaged to manage these risks. There is a negative, even conspiratorial bias in some pages: “there is a technological mechanism which, under the guise of progress, threatens the autonomy of peoples and the very survival of humanity.” And again, “the ultimate goal of the financial elite is clear: to enslave humanity through eternal debt that people will carry until their last breath.” It is therefore not surprising that the information on this subject provided in this book is incomplete. This book claims to be an “intellectual weapon for resistance”: by calling for the reappropriation of monetary sovereignty, the preservation of gold and silver metal, and a questioning of the all-digital approach, the author « urges us not to become spectators of the fourth industrial revolution, but to actively challenge its most dangerous excesses. We must inspire the world and Europe by proving that an alternative is possible: reintroducing gold and silver, restoring the franc, and driving the merchants from the temple ». Marc Gabriel DRAGHI is a lawyer and essayist. Dominique Chesneau

The book begins with the observation of a profound crisis in the perception of work by our contemporaries. ​In the past, work was considered part of the human condition, earning a living by the sweat of one’s brow. ​It was then experienced as everyone’s participation in a collective progress that could benefit everyone. ​Today, the worker feels tossed about in the midst of non-negotiable considerations and changes, suffered rather than chosen.​ ​The social and moral context marked by the weakening of all collective benchmarks and the predominance of self-referential individualism only aggravates the malaise generated by deindustrialisation for nearly 30 years, and now the prospect of an AI that will apparently further reduce the need for human work. The authors then set out to show that the end of work is a chimera (as much a chimera as the end of history that was announced thirty years ago). ​They describe how and why, despite the desire to “restore the value of work” and other slogans, collective, political, fiscal and social choices have had the effect of discrediting work, hindering it and taxing it without helping companies to share a unifying quest for meaning with their employees. All in all, a book written by practitioners, Bertrand Martinot is a specialist in the issue of unemployment, employment policies and social dialogue. ​He received the 2014 Turgot Prize for a previous book Chômage: inverser la courbe (Unemployment: reversing the curve). ​He was social adviser to the Presidency of the Republic from 2007 to 2008, general delegate for employment and vocational training (DGEFP) from 2008 to 2012, then deputy director general of the Ile-de-France region in charge of economic development, employment and training until 2019. ​Franck Morel is a labour law lawyer. ​Advisor to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and four labour ministers (Xavier Bertrand, Brice Hortefeux, Xavier Darcos and Eric Woerth). ​Both authors are associate experts at the Montaigne Institute. Hubert Rodarie

 ​This new publication by President Hubert RODARIE, an author who has been recognized and crowned many times, confirms his ability to challenge his readers (who willingly lend themselves to it) by inviting them to leave their comfort zone for an original reading of the major trends and other ruptures in the world.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ To look beyond the foam of the waves, to understand the underlying undertones that are at work in the upheavals of the planet. … ​​ ​One year after his return, President TRUMP is raising many questions by trying to brutally reshape international relations according to his vision of the new world, accompanying his diatribes with threats, potential recourse to force, establishing punitive customs duties and the unpredictability of his reversals of alliances.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​  Also, many see in this character nothing more than a revolutionary troublemaker undermining the consensus and the post-war world order, arousing contempt with his vulgarity and his extraordinary vanity: “.. strong with the weak and weak (deflated for some!!..) with the strong..”.  ​ Without fear of going against the tide, the author uses his expertise as a senior leader, backed by the scientific rigor of the engineer (which is also his trademark), with an impressive and documented knowledge of the History of the United States, to “try to understand the present and future motivations not only of the United States, but, symmetrically, of the European leaders and strategy.”  ​In the first part, the author uses a historical analogy by examining the parallels to the political and social plans between the Athens of the 5th century BC, that of Pericles and the “Golden Age”, and the United States of the 21st century. There are many similarities between Trump and Pericles: they both rely directly on the people, consider their strategies of alliances and empires in the same approach, are supported by powerful real wealth (money, oil), with the same ability to mobilise the popular electorate beyond the “deep state” … “Them against us …” and finally a certain caution vis-à-vis wars to consolidate the support of the people. However, if the success of this first year of TRUMP’s return is quite flamboyant, as evidenced by the Wall Street party, the wait-and-see attitude is flagrant on the side of companies, and the American threat continues to weigh on the future of world GDP, without forgetting the end of the story for Athens, with the reminder of the “Thucydite trap”. However, “This framework makes it possible to understand the structuring dynamics of the United States as well as the logic underlying the actions of the Trump Administration.”  ​The second part highlights: “the key issues, in particular the relations between the elites and the people, as well as the role of politics in the economic system and vis-à-vis the Central Banks in the US and in EUROPE.” In this context, the author develops his very well-argued vision (and produced in his previous works) of the independence and sovereignty of the Central Banks, or of the “symbol of inaction: Debt”, and the discrepancy between speeches and situations.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Faced with the change in cooperation between China and the United States, the author’s conviction remains that “Europe must imperatively reaffirm the primacy of politics, by and for the citizen. ​This is the great existential challenge that can only be met by reinventing itself in depth. ​ A particularly valuable publication for all audiences and for those who seek to predict the winners and losers of “Trumponomics”. ​Jean-louis CHAMBON  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Founding President of the ​ cercle ​ ​ TURGOT ,Hubert RODARIE is President of AF2i, Vice President of ARGAN – former Managing Director of an insurance group. He regularly contributes to the economic and scientific press. Author of four particularly notable books, and winner of the Turgot-DFCG Prize in 2016.

Since the pioneering works of Mc Luhan and Patino, the theme of “negligence” has become a social debate. ​​This book has the merit of not limiting negligence to simple attention defects due in particular to the attraction of screens or algorithmic black boxes. ​​It extends to all daily actions, professional behaviors and social attitudes. ​​The subtitle of the book, “an economy of inattention”, betrays the ambition of the authors, which is to establish negligence as a scientific discipline. If they pay attention, the reader of the book will discover that there are culpable, natural, rational or irrational negligence … but also, comfortable (when they save time)  ​and desirable (when they are affected). ​​The reader will distinguish between the negligent intellectuals, manual workers, civil servants, the credulous, the overwhelmed, the tired, the drowsy, etc. They will understand that negligence cannot be avoided in the democratic game, the management of organizations and the functioning of society, but that, in some cases, it contributes to new inventions or creations. ​​The forms of  ​negligence are diversified under the effects of digital platforms that practice nudge (soft influence), deploy dark patterns (internet traps) or offer too many “good deals”. The authors do not limit themselves to practical cases, they decline the negligence of intellectuals, decision-makers, the credulous, the tired… but also of citizens and elected representatives caught up in the democratic game, thus demonstrating a penetrating sense of  ​current events.  ​​ The book therefore deserves the attention of citizens-consumers for the originality of its subject, the relevance of its observations and the quality of its style. ​​Perhaps it is in turn negligent in not analyzing the psychological and psychoanalytical causes of negligence, as well as in not assessing its destructive effects of value at the level of a family, a company or a country. M. BACACHE-BEAUVALLET is a professor at ENS and Telecom Paris. ​​F. BENHAMOU is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris-Nord and Sciences Po Paris. ​​She is president of the Cercle des économistes. Jean-Jacques Pluchart